You can see it in their eyes, the sadness, the disappointment. There are candidates who came here to NUI Galway today knowing in their hearts of hearts that they were not going to make it. That the field was too crowded, that their chances were slim against a field packed with heavyweights.
Yet it still hurts when your name is called out with a number after it.
And when your opponents’ names are called out with numbers that are a multiple of what you got.
And your number says to you — “out of the tens of thousands of people whose vote you sought, this is the actual number that you convinced.” But that is not really the case, but try telling yourself that.
It might sound cliche-ed but it takes some guts to stand up before people and ask for their vote.
Some of the greatest fears we have are those fears of failure; and that creates a desire in us to avoid situations where you may or may not appear as a winner. That you may appear to have lost an argument.
That you have put forward an argument to thousands of people and that argument has been rejected.
What makes it more galling for those who have lost is that in politics, in many cases their argument is not listened to, because people come to choosing politicians from a variety of journeys.
So what do you say to candidates who have bombed. Better luck next time? Next time may be five years down the road.
Or five months.
But whichever, the situation may have changed
Is running in an election and losing an experience that will stand by you when you next run?
Elections are often determined by circumstances. Events, dear boy, events.
The events of the short and often dull campaign influenced many to vote they way they did. Moments of madness from some politicians. So you can never be sure of anything.
I’ve spoken to three politicians today who have lost, and they all did so with tears in their eyes.
Because it still bloody hurts.
But the greatest test of courage on earth is to bear defeat without losing heart. You've got to get to the stage in life where going for it is more important than winning or losing.
The three candidates who spoke to me with tears in their eyes will be back, because they want to reverse that feeling.
What we need are more people willing to take on the challenge without fear of failure and with genuine hope of winning.
But as one of those candidates sat near me in the College Bar as I wrote this article, the national news broadcast announced the election of someone who has been accused of corruption.
And as that victor was carried shoulder high elsewhere in the country, the feeling of disapointment for the local candidate was even more obvious.
And you had to hope that the desire to continue to make a contribution was not crushed ever more.
We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.
